Rear Euro Bumper mounting
 

I got ahold of a rear euro bumper for my car (thanks DieselDon!). Took off my US bumper and found out they had to modify the back of the car with mounting bolts in order to mount it on.. butchers. Apparently the car was rear-ended at some point and they couldn't find a euro bumper to replace it with. The thing is, my euro bumper only has two small holes in it, on the far edges of each side which do not even remotely line up to the existing holes in the body. The US bumper has 3 bolt holes in a triangle fashion. Here is a pic of my car with the bumper off:

http://207.44.234.41/IMG_6225.JPG

The euro bumper has no mounting hardware.. just a metal bumper. What do I need to do? Let me know if you need more pictures of anything.

I would take carefull measurements. use whatever is handy to hold bumper at the right location, measure and drill the holes. Use rubber washers between bumper and body, use grade 8 bolts so bumper doesn't fall off if you stand on it.

Thats how I did my 300SD when I put the Euro bumpers on it.

I thought of that, but the bumper appears way too flat against the body if I were to do that. I think there are mounts that go between the bumper and the body.. just like the US version has. I don't know why no holes line up on the body for the euro bumper.. maybe they replaced the rear panel with a US?

how flat is flat? It will be closer that US spec, shock mounted bumpers.I have only a few fingers space, I assume a 123 will be simular to the 116. But that may be wrong. The holes are certainly different, But I believe the panel otherwise has same profile. There are flat metal brackets that are between the chrome part and the body. Perhaps you take pictures of what you do have and someone can tell you whats missing if anything.

I've looked at a bunch of photos of rear euro 123 bumpers. It appears the chrome part of the bumper, without the bumper trim.. sticks out about 1" - 2" past the rear tail lights. When I put mine flush against the body, it is recessed behind the level of the tail light, or just even with it.

In a few photos I've seen, I can see a part of mounting plate that sits below the bumper on each side.. this is the part I think I am missing.

Could you take and post more pictures, with details of the Eurobumper. Might make it easier to understand. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Maybe someone here with 123 Eurobumpers can spot whats wrong or not with what you have.

I will try to take some pictures tomorrow. I presume you need pictures of the bumper mounting taken from below?

http://207.44.234.41/euro1.jpg

Normal installation

http://207.44.234.41/euro2.jpg

Mine, flush against the car. The two holes are the only mounting points. Bumper strip is off, ofcourse.

Yes that would be great!

thats closer than my 116 euro's fit.

The Euro bumper mounting brackets offset the bumper mounting bolts by about 8 inches and move the bumper out about 2 inches. You could fabricate some brackets but it would be hard to make homebrew brackets with the same strength as the original stamped brackets. I meant to check the parts book to see if there was a drawing of the brackets but I forgot. It will be next week sometime before I get a chance to look at the book.

Ah-ha! I knew it. Thanks for the pics.

Euro bumpers
 

turbo diesel,

I just removed the euro bumper from the rear of my 280TE, 5 speed and installed an American bumper. The single bolt, inside the two verticle ones, is the mounting bolt for the euro bumper. So, there are only those two inside single bolts for the euro bumpers. I've two euro wagon ones and two sets of euro coupe ones and that's how they all mount. Sounds to me like someone has rearranged the mounts that are on your new euro bumper. Since there are only two small bolts holding each of these mount, you might just have to undo these two bolts, flop the bumper mount over 180 degrees and reinstall the two bolts so that the mounts are on correctly resulting in everything mounting up correctly.

Check it out.

Ben

TD:

Just got back into town. As I mentioned earlier upon sending the bumper, there was an iron support beam behind the bumper which is very different than all my non-euro's. I don't know if that car was special or all euros are like that.
I need to get to the 'back 40' and check out that other euro for the side piece anyway.

Diesel Don

Euro bumpers
 

diesel don,

You're correct about the support beam behind the bumper but on either end of that beam held on by the same two bolts should be another support in the shape of a "Z" that has a single elongated hole for mounting to the single inside bolt on the rear of the car. The two "Z" suppots should be mounted so that their holes overlap the large support beam. In other words the "Z" support holes should be as close to each other as the mounting bolts will allow. Hope this helps.

Ben